Yu's Recollections
by KH777
Summary: Yu thinks back on some of his experiences with his friends.


Author's note! This is definitely a _Seraph of the End_ fan fiction. _**This is by no means intended to be yaoi (gay boys.)**_ I did this for a school assignment; my task was to write in the style of Tim O'Brien, the author of _The Things They Carried,_ detailing his experiences in the Vietnam War. Anyway, as I've only watched eight episodes of the anime, I decided to use some scenes from the anime and ones I made from my fan fictions and bits I made for this paper. As such, I did things as appropriate and good for the paper.

Let's face it. When you have five sixteen-year-olds in one unit for fighting vampires and monsters, things are going to get immature and heated, especially cause three of us are hotheads and one of us is a trickster. Still, these people are my best friends. I think of them as like family. I remember when Kimizuki hot-wired that military truck and I was… reasonably excited, my hands on the window pane and a huge grin on my face, my voice a pitch higher in excitement rather than its usual deep edge. I hadn't, erm, had much experience with cars. So, I questioned if I could try it out. Kimizuki was annoyed and said no cause I didn't know how to drive, adding that I was acting like "the annoying little brother that he never wanted." I'm too stubborn for that though, and tried to drive it anyway… and crashed it. But it wasn't damaged that much or anything! Then Kimizuki was _real_ ticked off and we got in a brawl. Then Shinoa sat herself in the driver's seat except she was so short that she couldn't even see over the wheel well, having to lean upwards. Kimizuki and I thought this was hilarious and laughed at her. She wasn't pleased. At all. Let's just say that we agreed not to insult her height anymore.

Not all of us irritate each other though; Yoichi didn't irritate any of us. It was good for one of us to break up our squabbles. Except I remember that one time when Kimizuki and I were going at it and Yoichi tried to break us apart. I remember ignoring his arms wrapped around my waist, his useless and almost desperate attempt for us to stop fighting. It didn't work. Not only did it not work, but, as I dodged out of the way of a punch, Yoichi's head raised at the worst moment, the assault landing on _his_ face. His grip slacked and flinched away as a hand rose to caress one of his large, hazel eyes. Before then, it wasn't a _real_ fight. We were friends, and we weren't _actually_ trying to hurt each other that much, but something snapped in me at that moment. I don't remember what happened much after that, except that Shinoa called Guren over to break us up violently (he's our commanding officer).

I remember waking up in the middle of the night. I'm a light sleeper so it wasn't that unusual. When I checked for what had woke me up, I found Yoichi, shaking. Once I caught a glance at his face, it was obvious he was being plagued by a horrible nightmare. The trembles were getting worse, and he was sobbing in his sleep, tears falling fresh from his eyes, muttering a whole bunch of gibberish. Unable to see him like that, I shook him to wake him up. After a bit of shaking, he jolted awake, calling my name and wrapping his arms around me. There was so much force behind it that I almost toppled over. I just stood there and let him release all his pent up emotions. I _knew_ how it felt to have nightmares that felt real like that. Yoichi and I were the same; we had both watched as our family died right in front of us and had been able to do squat about it.

That's why I hate the vampires more than anything. Not only because they took _everything_ from me, and from lots of other people too. They had no regard for the damage they do, people are nothing more than animals to them. That's why I refuse to sit around, no, I'll keep fighting. I admit that I do reckless dumb things for that end, or to protect someone else.

I remember our first mission. We just were introduced to Mitsuba and she already tried to kick me and was surprised when I caught her foot. She's the one most opposed to my "going out of formation." On our first mission, there was a little girl who was cornered by a monster and about to get killed. They said she was just bait from the vamps and it was too dangerous to go and save her. I didn't listen and did it anyway, feeling the rush as I yanked my sword out of its sheathe and unleashed a shockwave against the monster. After we returned, she clapped me on the face, peeved about how reckless I was being. Despite the stinging of my face, I couldn't bring myself to regret my actions. That's just who I am, and I've done a lot more stupid stuff than that.

Shinoa's favorite thing to do is tease her friends. I remember when I first met Kimizuki. He had a deep scowl imprinted on his face and grumbling something under his breath. He must have been in a mood where any and everything sets you off. Cause all I did was bump into the guy and he punched me, so we started brawling for the first time. I didn't know this, but, Shinoa had been using our fight as her source of entertainment and made no attempt to break it up. Later, Yoichi wondered what happened to my face. In a rather irritated mood myself, I told him that I had ran into an annoying telephone post. That must have been awful; Yoichi spoke with a sympathetic and understanding tone in his voice. At times like that, I was grateful for someone who understood and didn't press more.

I also remember the time when before we received our weapons for fighting the vamps. We had just taken a test and not being interested in anything but killing vamps, I scored low. Very, very low, but only because I wasn't trying that hard! So, Shinoa paraded it around and everyone saw it and gawked about it and it was dang embarrassing. But not that embarrassing, book smarts don't really mean anything when you're in battle (take that Kimizuki for scoring freaking 100%!) Of course, Yoichi assured that it wasn't actually as strange as everyone had made it, since I have a four-year gap in my education.

Another memory that sticks in my mind is the one when Yoichi and I were separated from our friends in a cave-in. He was concerned about getting attacks from more vamps, but I tried to convince him that there weren't many more left around here. "Thank you, Yu..." He smiled at my words. Then he fidgeted, twiddling his white gloved thumbs and said that, "It might have been better if someone else was here, instead of me…" Of course I snapped at him for downplaying himself. Then his gaze dropped and he apologized, and agreed with me. I learned a bit later that some jerk had said something demeaning to him. I had half a mind to beat up whoever the heck would insult the meek Yoichi. Though, Yoichi knew my intentions and wouldn't tell me squat so I gave up.

Though, these memories tend to stick, there is one that sticks more than any other memory. Even after four years, the feelings linger like it just happened yesterday. The images won't leave my head. The sounds, the smell, the sight, all of it are ingrained in my memory. After all, seeing your brothers and sisters die right in front of you when you're only twelve years old isn't something that can be forgotten. No, it demands to be known, to continue over and over in a continuous loop. However, my friends have made it replay far less and I have to admit, I'm grateful for that.


End file.
